Sunday, October 30, 2011

31 Days of Halloween: Satan's Little Helper (2004)

I love a good Halloween horror movie, and I’m not talking about your
usual haunted house flick. No, I’m talking about movies that put you in
the spirit to spook, movies that haunt your dreams with visions of
Halloween and really inspire you to get in the season.

One such gem of a Halloween film is Satan’s Little Helper, part perverse satire, part vicious horror film and a whole lotta fun!

Young Dougie (Alexander Brickel) is obsessed with a video game called Satan’s Little Helper,
in which a character helps Satan send people to Hell. It’s Halloween
day, and Dougie and his kooky, spacey mom (Amanda Plummer) are picking
up Dougie’s sister Jenna (Katheryn Winnick), who is back home from
college just so she can take Dougie trick or treating. Problem is,
Jenna’s brought her boyfriend Alex (Stephen Graham) home for the holiday
and Dougie is pissed…so he storms off to wander the neighborhood alone,
clothed in his own Satan costume.

Dougie comes upon a creepily masked serial killer who is going
house-to-house, killing people and then re-arranging them on front lawns
and porches as macabre Halloween decorations. Dougie thinks he’s
finally found his Master and brings Satan home to meet mom and sis. They
think the person under the mask is Alex, trying to please Dougie, so
they think nothing of the weird behavior. Dougie goes on a crime and
killing spree with “Satan,” thinking it is all just a game…until his
“Master” attacks his family that is.

Satan’s Little Helper is a fun, darkly humorous
flick that borders on satire. You’re never quite sure if director Jeff
Lieberman (who has created other cult classics like Just Before Dawn, Squirm, Blue Sunshine)
meant it as a social commentary on kids being desensitized to violence
or if he just wanted to have a bloody good time, but whatever the case
he succeeds in creating a cult classic!

Though the character of Dougie is unbelievably naïve at times (what
kid, no matter how desensitized, would think that an old lady being hung
out of a window is all part of a game and not real?), I couldn’t help
but get sucked into the imaginative story. The whole Halloween setting
really helps with the story, especially due to the fact that everyone is
in costume and things are expected to be gruesome. The killer, whom we
never learn much about, has it pretty easy since no one can see his face
and no one really takes the dead bodies he leaves in his wake to be
real. My favorite part is when “Satan” gruesomely kills a black cat
(very cringe-worthy in of itself!!) and uses its blood to write “BOO” on
the side of a house he’s already decorated with a very real body. A
lady with her two trick or treating kids asks our killer to pose for a
picture, which he obligingly does!

Now, this is by no means a perfect film. For one, the character of
Dougie does grate the nerves with his stupidity. For another, the acting
at times isn’t all that great. The film also has a low-budget look (it
was shot on digital in 2004) that will turn some viewers away. The story
is engaging, but towards the end it starts to drag a little bit. Still,
despite these flaws Satan’s Little Helper is an extremely fun and clever horror movie.

I was on the fence about this one (watched it last year) although I almost wonder if it fare better on a rewatch. My biggest problem was not knowing what tone it was going for. It's black comedy, but so much of it feels set up as straight horror. I wouldn't be surprised if knowing what to expect makes it a little more entertaining on the second go around.